The paths we walk
by StarMaker674
Summary: A world of heroes, a world of villains and a world of conspiracies , all on the verge of war but things become interesting when a random nerd from our world gets thrown into the mix. The right man in the wrong place and time can make all the difference.
1. In the beginning

"Why is everything so dark," I thought as I tried to move my body, only to not feel anything at all, as if I was a brain floating in nothingness. Maybe I was; I tried to remember what happened before everything went black. I remember a plane, then lots of screaming and the sickening smell of smoke, but not much else. "Am I dead," I thought.

I began to panic as the implications of this lack of any sensation or feeling dawned on me: was this the afterlife? No salvation or damnation, just an endless black nothingness that I was doomed to stay in until I go mad from loneliness and boredom.

"It depends on how you define death," I heard a voice, neither male or female, speak. Despite the fact it seemed oddly familiar, try as I might I found myself unable to find who the speaker might be.

"Who are you, what are you, and what did you do to me?" I shouted in a growing alarm.

"First off I need you to relax, my friend. I mean you no harm, and second off you are not dead, at least your consciousness is not. Your physical body, on the other hand, has been utterly destroyed beyond recovery I am afraid," the voice said soothingly. I could almost feel a glimmer of sadness in its tone before it continued in a reassuring tone. "I can make you a new one if you would like, though."

I was very tempted to say yes, if only because I thought having my body back would help me calm down, but I remembered in time that I have no idea who I am dealing with here. Restoring my body might very well come with strings attached. "Thank you, but I think I would rather have an explanation. I am asking again, who are you, and why am I here? "

"'Who am I?'' is not a question so easily answered, but as a start you can call me X'xora. I am part of a race called the Well Keepers, we are not "alive" as you would conventionally think of it. We have no physical body, existing purely through quantum mechanics and perturbations in the space-time manifold. I can explain further, but that would take me at least a century, and I believe you do not want to hear me talk for that long, do you?"

I was tempted to say no if only to confuse him, but he sounded sincere enough that I think he would have gone through with it. "No thanks, I think that will do for now. So, what do you want from me? Am I some sort of pet, slave, or court jester to you?"

"Oh I assure nothing of the sort. We are a peaceful race, and only desire to make the multiverse a better place."

Wait! What? "Did you just say multiverse?"

"Yes, which brings me to my second point. My race exists across multiple plains of reality, which to put it simply means we do not inhabit one universe, but all of them simultaneously."

"How is that even physically possible?" I just could not wrap my head around all of this, I am smart but nowhere near an Einstein, hell I was mediocre in "normal" physics at best.

"Like I said it is complicated, and would take years for you to even begin to comprehend it," it said before quickly adding, "Meaning no offence to your intelligence."

"None taken, but I still do not see how this all relates to me."

"Well, remember what I said about making the multiverse a better place?" I mentally "nodded", even though I technically did not have a head or a neck at that moment. "Well, unfortunately we cannot directly interact with the physical plane of existence. We are limited to mostly observing things as they unfold, and can only work through agents which we induct in very specific circumstances."

"And I am one such agent, I think" I said as things started clicking together.

"Correct," it said. There was silence for a moment before X'xhora continued. "Know that I am truly sorry and regret having to recruit you into this but I have little choice. There are many lives that are at stake in my corner of the multiverse, and I just cannot stand idly by while they are slowly but surely falling under the influence of malevolent powers."

It said this with such force and anger in his voice that I was actually afraid for a second before X'xora calmed down again. "But this does not make what I am doing any less questionable. I have chosen you to do this because I see immense potential in you, and I think you are apt for the task at hand. I would, however, very much prefer that you accept to do this willingly."

That was surprising. "Wait, YOU chose me," I shouted with anger as a frightening idea came to my head.

"I know what you are thinking, and no I was not in any way responsible for your unfortunate demise in your original universe. As I said before, we can not interfere with the material universe. Your plane accident was just that, an unfortunate coincidence, and yet one that happened in such a way that I was able to recruit you."

My anger abated, though I still did not trust him one hundred percent; after all, he could very well be lying. Sure he seemed genuine, but the best con men are always the ones who you least expect to con you.

"I still don't see why you would recruit me of all people. I'm an above average college student with not much in the way of special talents, it's not like I am some sort of chosen one or gifted with some great power," I said truthfully. I really could not see why this entity would ever choose me to be its "champion" as this seemed to be.

To my surprise it laughed, a warm laughter of fondness. "Truly you underestimate yourself, which is part of the reason I chose you. I know this sounds "cheesy" as you humans call it, but you often find the greatest of heroes where you least expect it. Indeed, if only you knew how many go on with their lives without having the chance to shine. Though...in some cases I consider it a mercy." His tone suddenly turned melancholic.

"Look, I know this is not something you imagined yourself doing, and i know that i am essentially forcing this on you, but i implore you to think about it. I know you always desired to do some good in your world but never got the chance to do it on a large scale, but now you have the chance to influence entire universes for the better!"

Oh, he/she/it is appealing to my ego, and true to form it was working. I am only human after all.

"And besides, aren't you tired of feeling helpless all the time, to have to go through the motions of life while knowing that so many wrongdoings go unpunished and you are powerless to stop it."

Okay, that one hit a nerve. I have to say this guy/gal knows how to press my buttons in a good way. Well I am probably dead in my world, so what do I have to lose? Still, I needed to be cautious.

"Okay, I will humor you for now."

"I see you do not trust me, which is understandable. I will tell you what about how you help me out with just one world, and if you do not like it or fail I will release you. Consider this a trial run. So, do we have a deal," it asked softly

Well at least it wasn't unreasonable. "I accept, but I am warning you I am not the hero you seem to think I am."

A snort of amusement rung through the void.

"We shall see about that, very soon now."

There was an awkward silence for what I assumed was a couple of minutes (very hard to tell time in a formless void). "So what is my task anyway," I asked.

"I wish I could tell you, but doing so might cause changes to the events that I have foreseen."

"Oh great, are you gonna give me the 'this information is too dangerous for you to know' speech?"

"Not really. I am certain it is best you find out on your own, but for now all you need to know is that I will grant you incredible powers, powers great enough that you would be as you say "overpowered" in the setting I am sending you to. Just be careful not to get too arrogant with them."

Superpowers are always fun, right? i thought "What kind of powers am I getting?"

"Something akin to a mix of an eldritch god and what one of your timeline's video games call the Blacklight Virus. Be warned though, to safeguard your sanity you will start off relatively weak and have to learn to master your abilities, so your mind can handle the full knowledge of what you can do without undue strain. I know it sounds like I am purposely weakening you, but I ask you to take a leap of faith please" it said half pleading.

"Alright fine, can I at least know where i am going first?"

"I believe there is a video game in your world called Overwatch.

**A/N : Hello everyone, some here might be familiar with my earlier SI work which while valuable in setting me on the path to writing as a hobby i now just find to be full of cringe , this is my second attempted multicross self insert so hope you enjoys. **


	2. First impressions part 1

Of course I knew about Overwatch , I mean what gamer didn't wasn't at least vaguely aware of it . Unfortunately knowing about Overwatch and knowing its lore and the histories of the characters are two different things and I had no idea about the latter.

And when I said as such to my mysterious alien space bat benefactor his/her/its (fuck was this confusing) response was a simple

"Don't worry you will figure out eventually" said its voice almost cheerfully before continuing "I am not gonna lie , brace yourself because this next part is gonna hurt , sorry in advance" it said apologetically

"Wait! What?!" I yelped in fear before the pain started : hot,white all encompassing pain as if every single atom of my being pierced with a thousand hot needles. It was maddening and it lasted for what seemed like an eternity to the point where I thought this was all some dying dream and I just ended up in hell.

But at last came sweet relief as I felt myself floating almost blissfully before feeling solid ground under my feet. At last I found myself capable of opening my eyes again. I was standing in the middle of what looked like a shopping mall ; there were a lot of people but it wasn't crowded. Everything looked so….futuristic , sleek and just a little cyberpunkish, familiar but different enough to clue me in that this wasn't the "real" world.

I stood there for who knows how long before I finally comprehended the situation I was in and I bolted to the nearest restroom I could find , the directions were all written in what I assumed was French and luckily German as well.

Luckily the men's room was empty and I took the opportunity to get a good look at myself. The face that stared back at me was definitely mine but at the same time something just felt... off it looked almost sculpted and free from a lot of the imperfections that plagued my old face (not all them, the small scar above my left eye was still there for some reason.

I tried to calm myself, breathing in and out so I can collect my thoughts. Here I was in an unknown reality , cast here by some eldritch abomination to fix some catastrophe ; Me of all people! And to top it all off it wasn't like i had a single inkling of knowledge on how this world works or my own supposed powers. I was still hoping this was all some sort of lucid nightmare that I will wake from any second now. I even tried focusing on waking up or open my "real" eyes but alas no such luck.

Resigned to my faith and knowing I couldn't hide in the bathroom forever I got out and decided to at least explore my surroundings, with the vague goal of at least finding some clue on what to do.

I never got the chance because before I knew it I was flung several meters into the air before unceremoniously falling on (and destroying ) a nearby store sign.

As I got back up to my feet I heard, the ringing in my ears was soon replaced by the just as unpleasant sound of screaming and the rocking thunderous boom of more explosions.

As my vision cleared I saw the smouldering wreckage of what was once an ordinary shopping mall and at my feet were the torn remains of some unlucky bastard's legs. I was horrified , frozen in place but that lasted only second until I felt some sort of instinct kick in and I was quickly moving towards the wreckage, I could somehow sense that there were people buried alive down there and afraid as I am I couldn't just let them suffocate.

"He said I had powers similar to Alex Mercer, didn't he?" I thought out loud as I looked at my hand and focused at changing them to something more suitable for the task at hand.

Sure enough I could feel it working (to my considerable relief) as my I felt my muscles deform, my bones breaking and reforming and my cartilage plates merging with each other . Oddly I didn't feel anything approaching the level of pain I was supposed to be suffering from but I won't complain about that.

Once my "transformation" was done I wasted no time getting to work. I could sense at least three people down there. Digging with all my new found strength I was soon moving wreckage and dirt at a phenomenal pass and was able to rescue two of the three : a young man and woman, probably a couple. They were frightened and bruised but otherwise seemed healthy , I mustered all my limited knowledge of German to try and tell them to run away from here and luckily they seemed to understand the gist of what I was saying.

The remaining victim left however was a little boy, no older than six i guessed, his face a mess of bleeding wounds and cuts , clutching in fear a heavily deformed corpse that I could only assume was whatever was left of his parent. I was nauseous but I didn't have time to feel sick as I quickly grabbed him even as he futilely struggled against me and screamed in a language I didn't understand at all. I knew he probably didn't want to abandon his parent but I couldn't just leave him like this and frankly his struggles weren't even an annoyance to me even as he started biting and scratching.

Grabbing him tightly I started running to where I vaguely remembered the emergency exit was only to find it blocked behind tons of wreckage and debris. I couldn't just put him down to dig through it and risk him running away , not helping me think was sensing dozens more "life signals" (I guess I have no idea what else to call them) trapped under debris and I could hear their panicking thoughts somehow.

And just when I thought things couldn't get worse, robots show up and not your garden variety rescue bots either but murder machines yelling "No humans".

Yep I could tell this was going to be fun.

* * *

Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

"Alright Winston, what's the problem this time, love" Tracer said chipper as ever.

"We have another terrorist bombing, this time in Geneva." The evolved Gorilla sighed sadly, and she could understand why , it was the fifth one this week.

"Null Sector again?" she said more a statement than a question.

"Indeed, we are stretched thin enough as is so it will be just you this time, however Mercy is close by and she'll rendezvous with you there."

"Guess , I better get moving".


	3. First impressions part 2

**Mercy POV**

The scene before her had sickeningly become one she was used to seeing by now.

The shrieking, the screaming for loved ones , the sight of people desperately crawling through the rubble usually missing one or more of their limbs but the worst were those who were still standing frozen in place, their minds unable to process what just happened. It was these sights that helped her get over her initial misgivings over the recall , even if she still had some reservations about the revived overwatch.

The second she arrived , she wasted no time in healing whoever was in reach as well as directing anyone who seemed to be okay to help dig out anyone still trapped. No sign of any Null sector omnics yet but no sign of any police response either.

"Mercy, I am on my way to your position , any sign of hostiles yet" she heard the distinctive shirpy voice of Lena through her communicator .

"So far , haven't seen any null sector combat units….." she was cut off by the one of the NS's light mech units coming into view.

"Scratch that I have a light unit coming my way , probably more on the way."

"Copy that , try to hold out. I am coming as fast as I can."

Mercy reached for her blaster when she heard a distant scream that only got closer and closer , she looked up and could trace the sound to what she could make out as a person nearing the ground at terminal speed and by happy chances landed on the omnic ; smashing it completely in the process on empact.

"What was that doc? Another explosion?" Tracer chimed again , this time her voice betrayed concern.

"Not exactly but on the bright side I don't have to worry about the omnic anymore." she said as she hesitantly approached the impact site , she didn't know if it was just another omnic or a Talon agent. Standing amid the sorry remains of the robots was a young man (couldn't be older than Lena) wearing clothes that uncomfortably reminded her of Gabriel back when he was soldier 24. The expression on his face was one of both shock and relief as he held something tight to his chest.

"IT WORKED! It actually worked and i am not a smear on the ceiling" he exclaimed maniacally before he noticed her and she briefly saw a look of recognition flash on his face.

"Please tell me you speak English." he finally said

"Uhh, yes?" That's a rather weird question, unless he had lost his translator device.

"Wonderful, now you wouldn't happen to be able to speak whatever language that this little champ is speaking and can tell him to please stop biting me?" he said as his arms unfurled and revealed a small child who true to his words was gnawing on the man's left arm.

"Of course" she said before quickly grabbing the child and gently pulling him off the long suffering limb and calming him down before taking a look at the guy's arm which looked pretty terrible with dozens of wounds and gnashes. His face wasn't all that good either being covered in all manner of cuts and scrapes.

"That looks bad , wait here i can help.." she didn't finish her sentence before she saw all the wounds and cuts close by themsleves as the skin around them miracuolsly began to restitch itself and soon enough he was none the worse for wear.

"Thank you but i think that won't be necessary" he said sounding almost as suprised and in awe as she was.

"How?" she wanted to ask so many questions but there was no time.

"Look i would love to talk but if we are gonna save people we need to get moving, there are more of those robots inside and there at least twenty..." he was talking fast when he suddenly paused as if noticing something.

"Fuck now it's seventeen people in there. If i get them out here, can you help them?" he asked

"Yes i can but are you sure you are okay and how are you going to go back in there ?"

"Don't worry about me please , i can see you have enough people to worry about as is and i am wasting your time" he gestured to the wounded around them.

"And as for how i am getting back, same way i got out i guess " he said in a tone that implied that he really didn't like what he was about to do .

"Wait you don't mean you are gonna..." and just like that he was up in the air again.

"Jump!"

She almost thought about following him inside somehow but she needed to help the people already here , starting with that kid he was carrying.

Besides he seems to know what he is doing.

* * *

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING!

I mentally screamed as i was back in midair again and time seemed to slow as i reached the peak before falling back down again.

It was good that that angel lady was here , now I didn't know much about the lore but to hazard a guess any character with an angelic appearance has some sort of healing ability or at least that was what I sincerely hoped .

I didn't have much time to think about anything else before my body had a painful reunion with mother earth , though it wasn't as painful as i thought , guess i have my powers to thank for that too. Thank Allah i don't think i would have survived two seconds without them.

As I stood back up and regained my balance , I saw that I was surrounded by more of these robots , some of them bigger than the humanoid sized ones I saw earlier. Predictably their weapons were all trained on me.

"Human detected. Initiate extermination" one spoke before my body automatically jumped again (though thankfully it was rather tame compared to before) and I landed outside the circle avoiding the hail of bullets or laser fire or whatever it was they were using as weapons.

By instinct my right hand transformed into the iconic blade that Alex Mercer used in the prototype games. Yet another reminder of how inhuman i was (despite what these robots thought ) but at the moment all i could think of was survival.

My "hand" blade cut through the metal of the robots with relative ease and before long I found myself in a comfortable rhythm of hacking/slashing/cutting rinse and repeat. That isn't to say i was anywhere near the level of being the next Mercer or Heller but i did good enough that i was holding the robots back while only getting hit by the occasional lasershot.

At this point things were settling into a stalemate where any robot that got close to me was getting hacked into pieces but I couldn't get close enough to them to get a hit on most of them and they were getting in better positions as the fight drew on (how long was I fighting again). Even as I practically darted around with my newfound speed I was being whittled down ; I may not feel pain or suffer any damage from their shots but they still tore away valuable biomass from my body , biomass that i couldn't regenerate right now and I really hope I won't have to eat some random corpse just to stay alive.

"Heads up, love!"I heard a voice shout out behind followed quickly by rapid firing followed by those robots getting their heads blown up . I looked up and sure enough it was the game's mascot zipping at lightning speed through the air somehow defying gravity

It was almost mesmerizing and I think I just stood there gawking for a second before remembering the situation I was in. Quickly capitalizing on the distraction she made I moved in and dispatched more droids. Between the two of us (even with my clumsiness in close combat) we made short work of most of them, the rest retreated as suddenly as they came , several sacrificing themselves to cover for the others , if it weren't for them being killer robots it would almost be admirable. Soon it was just me and the mascot and she suddenly "zapped" right next to me

* * *

**Tracer POV **

"So I guess you are today's good samaritan , aren't you ?" the stranger was like Angela described him , lean , tall and just a little edgy in the way he dresses. He didn't answer her right away , instead he just stared at her for a while , almost like seeing a ghost before speaking reluctantly.

"I guess I am , but it's not much really , I would have been killed here if it wasn't for you, thanks by the way"

"Ah don't be modest love , you didn't do too bad yourself , even if you do swing that blade of yours like you are swatting a fly."

"Yeah, I….." without warning she was on the ground and she heard the unmistakable sound of a sniper round , when she looked up she saw him standing with a gaping hole in the side of his head.

"Oh don't worry I will be fine, probably...were these colors always here" he said in an almost drunken tone before collapsing on the ground. She could see he was still breathing and so surprisingly still alive.

Not wasting any time she grabbed him (and holy shit was he way heavier than he looked like) and quickly darted to safety, in her rush she didn't notice just who was it that fired that bullet.

In no time she was outside and right next to Angela once again who was understandably shocked by her sudden appearance.

"Could you stop doing that please, wait, is that who i think it is ?" she admonished before quickly noticing who she was carrying.

"Yep" she said as she strained to lower him gently to the ground and Mercy checked on him.

"He will live , in fact I can see the wound already closing and healing all by itself, just like when I saw him the first time. Fascinating!" Mercy said in awe though personally Tracer found it more freaky than anything else.

They couldn't stay for long though as they heard police and ambulance sirens overhead which signaled for them to make a quick retreat ; Overwatch's reinstatement wasn't really common knowledge and given that they were technically a rogue organisation they weren't keen on making it so.

"So what do we do with him, i don't like the thought of leaving him here but taking him with us sounds like a huge risk, given that we don't know anything about him"

Mercy looked thoughtful for a second before replying

"We take him with us, I don't want to imagine what Talon might do with him if he got caught by them."

"Then help me get him onboard the Orca."


	4. First impressions part 3

**Watchpoint: Gibraltar**

It had been 8 hours since the bombing at Geneva, but despite this Mercy hadn't been able to get a good look at their "guest". With another attack soon afterward she and Tracer had to leave ten minutes after arriving back at base, so he had to be left to the care of Winston and Athena, which made her a bit uneasy. Winston was among the most intelligent she knew, but his expertise was in technology, not biology. At least, she assured herself, the guy seemed fine enough when they brought him in.

Right now she was exhausted, having just spent the last couple of hours saving people under heavy fire, and despite her best efforts she couldn't save everyone. She had long accepted that she couldn't even before she joined Overwatch, but that doesn't mean it didn't sting sometimes.

She had changed out of her valkyrie suit to more casual clothings, making her way to the med bay before she turned in for the night; there was something specific she needed to check.

Winston was already there. He too looked exhausted and worn down as he often had since the recall, but despite it all he seemed in good spirits. She couldn't exactly blame him; Overwatch was his life, and the PETRAS act hit him harder than the rest of them. She could only imagine how happy he was right now, even if she knew he would have preferred it happening in less dire times.

"So Winston, how's the patient doing?" She helped herself to some coffee from the machine, trying to keep the conversation casual.

The Gorilla was a little startled, clearly so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice her coming in, but he quickly recollected himself. "Oh hello there Angelea! He is doing quite well, very well in fact. His skull shows no signs of trauma or injury anymore, and his vitals are fine."

She sat down next to him, sipping at her hot and strong beverage. "Okay, you make it all sound mundane, but your tone suggests a "but"."

"But...here's the thing. Whoever he is, he is definitely not human."

That wasn't what she expected. "Come again?"

Winston pressed a button on the monitor next to him which lit up to show a pale blue 3D display of the patient's body. "I have had Athena scan our guests for signs of any other injuries he might be suffering from. Now, superficially he appears human enough, but zoom in on the cellular level," he said as the display shifted to show what was definitely not a human cell. "I have not seen any cellular structure like this anywhere else, nor is anything like it in Overwatch's databases."

She could see why. From a preliminary look the cell seemed to resemble one suffering from a viral infection than any healthy one, and its nucleus and ribosomes were truly mammoth in size. There was no way any normal cell could have that much in the way of nucleic acids. "This is... This is..." she stammered, as the gears turned in her sleep deprived mind and the implications of this began to dawn on her

"Utterly alien, should be physically and biologically impossible?" Winston helpfully continued. "Yeah, that's what I thought too. I wanted to show it to you first before jumping to any conclusions".

"None of what I am seeing here makes sense biologically speaking, but.." she said as the caffeine started to work its magic and she took a closer look at the uncanny specimen before her eyes, noticing some incredibly vague similarity to a stem cell. "I take it you have physical samples," she asked.

Winston looked a bit embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head nervously, like a kid who forgot to do his homework.

"I did try to take a sample noninvasively from his skin, but..." he said before pressing another button on the monitor which shifted the picture to show footage of a cell culturing system containing some repulsive looking black tissue pulsating and twitching constantly even as it grew and expanded. "The tissue you see before you has grown from a single cell despite Athena's best attempts at inhibiting its growth, and it had to be destroyed before it outgrew its confinement".

He paused to take a breath and adjust his glasses a little. "All the samples I took ended up the same way no matter what conditions they were exposed to, be it a lack of nutrition, extreme temperatures or pressures, and even gamma radiation." he spoke with a hint of awed fascination in his voice.

Angela herself couldn't help but feel a little impressed, her interest overpowering her concern for a moment. Where did such a group of cells, no matter how massive, get the raw mass to replicate with such virulence, and the energy too? There were more questions here potentially than an entire wing of PhDs could work on.

"The only thing that works is subjecting the cells to vacuum conditions, and even then they merely enter a state of hibernation like a water bear or something."

"That's an apt way to describe it," she commented

"What I am more concerned about however," he said as the display shifted once again to show another sample, "is this." This one was much bigger than the rest and seemed to be moving, not just random twitches and angulations but actual deliberate movements.

"I take it this is a more developed sample." she said, more a simple observation than a question.

"Yes , I wanted to see what would happen if I let one grow unhindered..." he explained before he was interrupted.

"Winston please tell me you were careful with this. We have no idea what these things are capable of, what HE is capable of, and the last thing we need right now is some sort of super durable ever growing cancer running around," she said perhaps more forcfully than she intended, though Winston wasn't shaken by it.

"I assure you Angela, I have taken all the necessary safeguards and then some with this, but your concern is well warranted. I understand where you're coming from." She nodded in cautious approval and he continued. "As i was saying, this sample was allowed to develop without interruption and as you can see it showed signs of awareness of its environment." The footage began to show the "blob" thing moving towards one side of its containment unit before it began to grow and insert an intricate maze of tendrils all over it.

The video paused. "I had to...terminate the sample afterwards."

"Wait a second. How do you even terminate them, if they can survive almost everything?"

"Well while it could survive all toxins and antibiotics we had on hand, nanobots specifically designed and programmed to destroy DNA can reliably destroy the samples before they could adapt to them."

"Right, please you were going to say something else?"

"The final thing I noticed was that all samples seemed to grow or move in the same directions, which after a quick look at the layout of the watchpoint is always the direction of the med-bay."

Silence hung in the air as both human and higher ape looked at the subject, who still lay perfectly motionless.

"So speaking of him, do we have any info on who he is or where he came from?"

"Athena's searches have been futile, unfortunately. There is no information about him or anything like him on record: no ID, he doesn't match the profiles of any Talon agents we know of at least." He said that in a tone that betrayed a little frustration.

"Well then," she said looking through the reinforced window, "Let's hope he is in a good talkative mood when he wakes up."

And as if on cue, they saw his eyes shoot open and heard his grasp for air. "Well that was quick," Winston quipped.


	5. Chats

Darkness.

Again? Oh man, this doesn't become a regular thing.

Thankfully this time I could feel my eyes and opened them and to my shock, I found myself in bed. MY BED!

"Oh thank goodness it was all just a nightmare," I said almost laughing with glee and feeling a little stupid for actually believing it was real. I mean: multiverses? Getting recruited by some apologetic ROB? Getting trapped in a universe where the characters of some game I only had surface knowledge are real? And choosing an unqualified nobody like me?

Bah Humbug!

"Note to self, Never eat Kofta and Kebab right before bed."

" It won't help with the nightmares, you really should have done this for the sake of staying healthy in general. Though I suppose that's not an issue for you anymore, is it?"

My blood ran cold as I recognized that voice and saw the form of an androgynos...humanoid appearing out of thin air next to my bed, it wasn't horrifying to look at it but it gave some "uncanny valley" vibes.

"Oh, so it was all real, wonderful," I said exaggerating the sarcasm in my voice as much as I could.

"Indeed it was; you got shot in the head while saving these people. Don't worry you are not dead again, it's just that you happened to get shot in an area that isn't easily regenerated and so your body is taking its time to recreate your brain perfectly as it was before." X'xora said taking my sarcasm seriously.

"So am I gonna be seeing every time I pass out or try to get some sleep?' I said as I stood up from the bed only to find myself comically dwarfed by him/her/whatever.

"Not at all I assure you this might be the last time we meet for quite a while. I am limited in how many times I can contact you and when so I advise you to make full use of our current meeting."

"Full use? you say" an idea just popped into my head.

"I wouldn't advise acting on the thoughts you are currently having; "punching me in the face" won't cause any damage for me and in fact will probably hurt you a lot more than you think it will."

"Don't try and trick me! This is a dream and as such, I can do whatever I want in it which includes yes, punching you." Before it could reply my fist had already made contact with its head.

The pain was immediate and punishing being akin to the burning pain of having stubbed your toe multiplied a thousandfold.

I resisted the urge to scream but I couldn't hold back a few whimpers. I looked up and saw X'xora didn't even flinch!

"I am sorry but this is no dream, merely a psychic-neuronic communion between our two minds, I do not how to explain it but the important thing is that you can experience pain in such a condition while I can not. I am sorry to have robbed you of what would have undoubtedly a cathartic exercise for you." It said sounding utterly sincere and without a hint of animosity in its voice to the point where I almost felt guilty about punching it.

"Okay, fine," I said as the pain started to fade and I could think clearly. "So seeing as I might not see you again in god knows how long can I ask a few questions?"

"I will try to answer them as best as I can but remember..."

"Yeah, I remember "can't reveal too much or else it might alter things for the worse" I get it." I said doing the air quotes gesture after cutting him off before continuing "So you said I have all the powers of the Blacklight Virus, right?"

"Yes"

"That includes all the abilities in the second game as well, right?"

"Yes and then some, I have taken the liberty of adding some power-ups from the redlight virus I think you will find useful."

"Should I even bother to ask what these powers are or are you going to be as uninformative as always."

"I am afraid so."

Okay, all these secrets were starting to get irritating.

"Well then, can I at least ask if this is what you meant when you mentioned me having extra powers, like an eldritch abomination if I remember right, as if being a sentient, shape-shifting, physics-defying, and memory absorbing virus wasn't eldritch enough for your tastes apparently"

"That I can answer. You see I saw that the ability to absorb others' memories might become a problem when it comes to the types of people you are dealing with so I took the liberty of adding some psionic abilities to your already extensive array, I can't tell you the full details….."

"When do you ever?"

"But, I can tell you that they will give you the ability to sort of….sift through and filter the memories you consume as to not become overwhelmed by unnecessary or uncomfortable details."

"Oh, lovely! Now I can eat people without having to fear turning into a mini-hivemind because what kind of person wouldn't want to have any inhibitions to their cannibalistic hunger removed."

"Indeed, and I believe you will find the ability to read minds to be most useful as well," it said without skipping a beat assuring me that I am stuck with a ROB who has no concept of sarcasm, well at least I had psychic powers like I always wanted now.

I wanted to ask many more questions: about the world I am trapped in and its history but then X'xora started to "fade" away.

"It seems that our time is at an end, I hope to see you again in good health" was all I heard everything around me seemed to crumble back into darkness.

At which point I automatically opened my eyes and gasped for air as if having just resurfaced only to be nearly blinded by the bright lights of the room I was in. My eyes quickly adjusted and I got up to see that angel woman from earlier (though she wasn't her armor at this point) looking at me from behind a glass wall and right next to her was an….. armored purple gorilla?

* * *

Winston POV

Once their guest had woken they immediately entered the room to brief him on the situation he was in and to try to ascertain his motives and whether or not he can be trusted.

Of course, after learning about his "peculiar" nature, he thought it best to have the meeting take place with a reinforced glass wall separating the two sides. He saw a glimmer of recognition on his face when he looked at mercy quickly replaced by bewilderment when he looked at him; not that it surprised him, he was quite used to this reaction from people.

"Hello, there can you hear us in there," Angela said slowly.

"Yes, loud and clear."

"Good, we are glad to see you are in good health." He said trying to assure him they meant no harm but before he could continue the patient interjected.

"Hey I know this is an odd question but by any chance, you wouldn't have happened to take some samples off me, did you?"

That took him by surprise, so he can also sense cells that have been removed from his main body. That was quite impressive.

"Yes, I did. Forgive but I was just going to run some DNA tests to find out who you are." and that was truly all he intended at first until he saw that the DNA samples he had were not human at all "But after seeing what they could I…."

"You couldn't resist running some tests on them. Not a problem I understand." he said with an understanding tone "I would suggest you return them to me or destroy them soon unless you want a million ravenous copies of me running around." he continued and Winston wasn't sure if he was joking or being serious.

"We will be sure to do that" Angela replied swiftly though he could tell she was just as bewildered as he was "Now don't take this the wrong way, we deeply appreciate you helping us when you did but we also have no idea who you are and what your motives are and these are rather difficult times for us." she paused to take a deep breath "We were just wondering if you could enlighten us on these matters so we can reach an understanding."

He stood there silently for a moment before taking a deep breath himself.

"Okay, you deserve an explanation but I only ask that you keep an open mind because what I am about to tell you might seem crazy."

He paused again as if to recollect his thoughts before continuing.

"You see I am a virus called Blacklight and this body you see before you belongs to a random human whose corpse happened to be the first thing I infested."

Well, he was right about the crazy part and Angela for her part looked as if she just saw a top-hat wearing T-rex disco dance in front of her.

"Yeah I know, viruses aren't even technically alive; how come one is talking to me right now you are probably thinking, well I don't know the exact details but somehow I can absorb information from the minds of those I infest giving me their memories."

"I see," Winston said, trying to mask his surprise.

"Wait, what do you mean by "infesting" people?" asked Angela with concern

"If you are worried about me running around infecting people I assure you that I haven't transmitted myself to anyone. I am only saying the things I know from this guy's mind."

"I see," she said with relief in her tone "Please continue."

"So anyways I was artificially engineered by a company called gentek who wanted to use me as a bioweapon. I don't remember exactly what happened but from what I can guess it didn't work out for them the way they thought it would."

He had never heard of this "gentek" before but perhaps it is/was another font for Talon, though he couldn't rule out other shady organizations wanting such a weapon at their disposal.

"What are your capabilities exactly?" He asked hoping to glean more info.

"Well, I can pretty much assimilate the DNA and thus traits and abilities of any living thing I absorb. Observe" he closed his eyes and to their shock, right before their eyes, his body morphed into that of Tracer. Clothes and everything!

Even he seemed shocked by it as much as they were with a look on his(her?) face that just screamed 'huh can't believe that actually worked.'

"Of course I can also generate my own weapons and armor." the Tracer imposter said as her right hand transformed into a terrifying clawed monstrosity before their very eyes."

"And of course," he said as he shifted back to his original form "I am guessing you know about my enhanced healing and strength."

"That I do," Angela said.

"Well that was certainly enlightening, now can we ask what your intentions are."

"Honestly I have no idea, I don't have that much in the way of memories, just bits and pieces scrambled and muddled together in a semi-coherent form. The first thing I remember clearly is the whole bombing at the mall thing and then meeting you guys."

"Do the names, Overwatch, Talon or Omnics ring a bell to you?" Angela inquired

"Not at all."

Will that certainly complicates things.

"I understand if this all sounds highly suspicious and I am willing to abide by any restrictions you deem necessary," he added

"Okay Mr…. what should we call you?" He felt a little embarrassed they forgot to ask for his name.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before replying "Seth*. Just call me Seth"

"Alright Seth, if we do release you from here then for starters you will have to be accompanied by an Overwatch agent at all times and you will have to wear a tracking bracelet. Both are temporary measures I assure you," he said though he almost chuckled at the bracelet part for he doubted it would work on him unless he wanted it to.

"Of course, whatever you say," he said.

With that Winston glanced at Angela who nodded in approval and with that Winston told Athena to open the sealed glass separating them allowing Seth to walk out slowly.

"So...is there anything you want right now," Angela asked a bit awkwardly.

"Now that you mentioned, do you have some food here? Because I am starving."

A/N :*What? You didn't expect me to reveal my actual name, did you?


	6. Fries

"Ah french fries, you are the one constant in my life," I said dreamily as I generously sprinkled more salt on the large plate before me. In other more normal circumstances, I would have worried about my health but right now that was obviously not a concern anymore.

Besides, I needed something to calm me down from all the insanity I have been exposed to lately, and that's before being interrogated by a purple gorilla of all things. I still don't know how I managed to stay outwardly calm and collected during my talk with angel lady and her primate friend despite eternally panicking, but it was at least reassuring to see that my usual indifference to authority figures when I am panicking was still there, not one of my better traits but it at least confirmed that I was still "me" personality-wise. At least for now, I really don't want to test what happens when I consume some random schmuck's memories.

"That can't be healthy, love." The game mascot whom I learned is called Tracer snapped me out of my reverie as she ate her own lunch, a rather humble salad.

We were in the mess hall of the building, which was rather an appropriate title at the moment given its sorry state. Not even sure where they got the food, and frankly I couldn't bring myself to care. We were the only living souls here, seeing as every other agent was busy dealing with some crisis around the globe. I would have expected Tracer to be indignant about the fact she was assigned to what was essentially babysitting, but she seemed to take it in good humor.

"I am a sentient virus, nothing about me is healthy," I replied before shoving one fry into my mouth, savoring the enhanced taste that my new senses gave me.

"Right," she said before going back to her food, or at least she tried as her eyes kept darting towards me when she thought I wasn't looking, just itching to say something.

"I can see you want to ask me something, go ahead no need to beat around the bush," I said with resignation. If_I_ was having lunch with a sentient virus I would be bursting with questions too.

"I am sorry, it's just Winston told me you shapeshifted into me earlier on during your little chat."

Ah yes….I was hoping nobody would bring that up. "Yeah I did, not sure how I got your DNA though, probably a stray hair or skin cell."

"Maybe and I heard that you also copied my clothes too."

"Yep, not sure how though, given that outfits don't exactly have DNA I could copy."

"Don't take this the wrong way, love, but I would have thought you would be knowledgeable about your abilities."

"Look, as far as I am concerned I was only fully conscious for two days now, and my only source of knowledge is the poor test subject I am using as host, so trust me it was as weird and surprising for me as it is for you," I said way more forcefully than I intended to, quickly regretting it as soon as I finished. She seemed sorry too.

"Sorry If I…"

"Never mind. What else did you want to ask?"

"I was just wondering if you could do it again," she said sheepishly, clearly feeling a bit embarrassed about asking this.

It took a moment to process what she just said. "Really, you want to see your doppelganger eating fries like a pig now?"

"Yeah, well not the last part, but call me weird but I really want to see what I look like outside of a mirror."

I wondered if this was some kind of prank or joke but she seemed genuine. "Okay fine, but I have two conditions. First, I want another plate of fries when I am done with this one, extra crispy this time."

"Simple enough, what's the second one."

"I want to know more about Overwatch, no scratch that I want to know more about what happened to the world since I was…absent."

She seemed to hesitate for a bit. "You know I can't tell you everything right? At least not yet."

Not ideal but expected. "Deal," I said before taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, hoping I could replicate my previous feat.

"_Okay just like last time visualizing the form I want to take." _I thought to myself before feeling as if every cell in my body was twitching all at once. It wasn't painful or even unpleasant just….weird? Not sure how to describe it.

"Wow," I heard her gasp and I opened my eyes. Looking at my reflection in a spoon I was greeted by my new visage, though the resemblance was undercut by just how out of place my bored expression was on her cheery face.

"Happy now?" I said with her voice coming out. I am not sure I will ever be able to get used to this whole impersonating people thing, the fact that I just casually changed from male to female was very discomforting enough on its own.

"This is weird but in a cool way," she said as she looked "It's like looking at a 3D mirror. Hell, you even got down the nitty-gritty details like the pattern of my clothes right." She continued staring at me like a child staring at the window of a candy shop, her eyes scanning for any difference that could distinguish us.

"Got everything you wanted yet?" I really wanted to go back to my "true" form right now.

"Just a sec," she said, doing some last-minute scrying. "And done," she said after what seemed like an hour, and with a sigh of relief, I was back in my own skin again. "You are very good at this, how did you even copy the tiny scar I have on the back of my neck," she inquired.

"Honestly not sure how that works myself," I said in all honesty, not like I consumed her and have knowledge of every knock and cranny, I guess Epigenetics maybe? How does that even work?

"Well now that I have upheld my end of the deal I think it's your turn, please start by telling me why those robots want to murder all humans?"

And from then on it was almost like a typical NPC exposition chat, as I got a now clearer idea of the world I was in. And boy was it worse than I imagined: Robot wars, Cyberpunk style megacorps running wild, and a world-spanning shadowy terrorist organization, just to name a few. And then there's Overwatch itself, a peacekeeping organization disbanded years ago over two guys having a dick measuring contest.

"Wow, this all happened," I said, contemplating whether or not to just find the nearest window on the slim hope this was all some insane lucid dream I am having and I will wake up in the regular world again.

"I know this is a lot to take in."

"Yeah no kidding, there's just one thing I want to know though; where do intelligent gorillas factor into all of this."

A/N : This took much longer to write than I expected thanks to some unforeseen circumstances, hope you enjoy. Big thanks to avatar11792 for proofreading this chapter (and all the previous ones)


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